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"If we want a healthy Great Barrier Reef, a prosperous agricultural sector, safety from bushfires and a limit to sea level rise and extreme weather, Australia needs to be bold and active in helping achieve a strong global agreement in 2015."

Dr Emerson said it wasn't as if the major countries were doing nothing on climate change at the moment.

He noted there were at least 10 states within the US which had set up emissions trading schemes.

"Within a year we'll have either a carbon price or an emissions trading scheme in 50 or more national and sub-national jurisdictions covering well over a billion people," he said.

"That's a pretty good start."

Environmental lobby group WWF called on the Australian government to commit more financial assistance for developing countries to reduce emissions.